What Engraves The Fastest?

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Broad Question

What material is the easiest to engrave on?

Specific Question

Is it easier to engrave on granite, glass, or wood with diamond bit points at 3 different speeds?

Hypothesis

I hypothesize that the glass will engrave the easiest followed by granite then wood.

Graph of Hypothesis

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Variables

Independent Variable: Engraving materials

Dependent Variable: Engraving speed

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

Same engraver
Same bit
Same design
Same speed




General Plan



Experimental Design

Experimental Design
I will conduct my experiment in my basement, where I engrave glass. I will do the experiment down there because that’s where my engraver is and there is good lighting there. I am the only person who will be conducting my experiment. The reason it is only me is because I don’t really need a lot of people to do this experiment and I’m not working with anyone. I will have three trials. One trial will be on wood, one will be on glass, and one will be on granite. I will be recording my data on the computer as I go. After I will put it into a document. I will then print it out to bring into school.
Three types of etching material will be tested: granite, wood, and glass. Each of the materials will be tested once. Each of the tests will be recorded on a camera and then after doing all of the experiments I will see which material is the easiest by looking at the video on the computer and looking at how long it takes it takes to complete the experiment. After I get the video I will upload them to the wiki page at my house and also I will make snapshots to go on my display board.

Materials List

  • Camera
  • Dremal engraver
  • Wood
  • Granite
  • Glass
  • Diamond bit points (for Dremal)
  • Printed out design for engravings
  • Computer
  • Work space
  • Clipboard
  • Timer




Background Research

The materials I will be using in my experiment will be glass, wood, and granite. The density of glass is 2.6g/cm3, density of wood is 3.10 g/cm3, density of granite is 2.75 g/cm3. This will help me out with my hypnosis because it will tell me if one engraving material is softer than the other. The density of wood may vary with the different types of wood. The recommended wood that you should use to engrave is either oak or maple. They're the hardest and won’t slip out. This will also help me with the wood because it will tell me what wood I should buy. This is important because I will want the softer wood. I would want this because the softer the wood the better the engraving is. Also, the speed is faster. The R/M's of the engraver I am using is 10,000 R/M’s = 167 R/s. This will help me determine the speed of the ratter per second. This helps me because my experiment is recorded in seconds. Bits are made up of a diamond tip being able to cut into glass better, but not so much for wood. Also, it is good for granite. Wood will peel when you engrave it. This is helpful to know because I will know not to put a lot of pressure on the wood when I engrave it. Moving the Dremal faster makes the design less bumpy. Pressing down hard will make the tool dig in more causing more time on design, I must get the pressure just right for easier engraving, Pressing lightly won't cut in as much making it harder to go back to design and making it all one level. These are tips that will help me do the design perfect. The easiest design is a circle. That is what the image will be to engrave. Recommended speed is 10,000 r/m for glass. This is also good to know because I need the design not to chip. The last bit of good info I will need is the pressure I should put on the engraver, the recommended pressure you should use on glass when your engraving is 12-18 pounds.

References

"How to Use Diamond Drill Bits." Diamond Core Drill Bits - Drill Glass, Stone. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. <http://www.diamond-drill-bit-and-tool.com/Diamond-Drill/DD1.shtml>.

"Engraving." home. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. <http://www.pilotltd.net/engraving.htm>.

" Wood Densities ." Engineering ToolBox . N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. <http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wood-density-d_40.html>


Detailed Procedure

  1. Bring all materials into work space in my basement
  2. Get all the materials set up
  3. Get the engraver set up and running
  4. Lay out wood, granite, glass on to table
  5. Set up timer to count how long it takes
  6. Turn computer on and bring up Microsoft spreadsheet
  7. Turn on video camera
  8. Turn on engraver
  9. Take the first material out and tape the design on to it
  10. Start the timer and begin the engraving
  11. After done record data onto spread sheet
  12. Repeat steps 7-10 for each material
  13. After all of the materials have been tested watch video and see which material is the easiest to engrave on

  14. Upload video to wiki








Conclusion

The original purpose of this experiment was to find what material was faster and more better to engrave on, wood, glass, or granite. the results of the experiment were that the glass engraved the fastest with a time of 1:23 min. Followed by granite with a time of 1:58 Min. The material that it took the longest to engrave on was the wood. The wood's time was 3:21 min.

Data Table

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Graphs

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Photos







Data Analysis







Discussion

"Engraving." home. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. http://www.pilotltd.net/engraving.htm.

My hypothesis was that the glass would engrave the fastest followed by granite then wood. My results did support my hypothesis. There is a relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Some patterns and trends that my data shows are that the softer the density of the material the longer it will take to engrave. If the object is very dense the object will engrave very fast. I think the testing in my experiment went very well and I would have loved to do this experiment again. The reason I thought the experiment went really smoothly was because it was no trouble at all graphing and testing this test. I have already done all this stuff before so it was not something I had no idea how to do and had to study the experiment. I knew what I was doing. If I could improve my experiment, I would have slimmed down the timing. What I mean is I recoded this experiment in min. and sec. if I could have re-did the experiment I would change the unit of time to milliseconds. An interesting future study might involve a new variety of materials. The reason I would do this would be because this would open this experiment way more up. Also the experiment will have more data to compare and it would be cool to see the different material be engraved on and see how long it takes.
Must get the pressure just right for very fast engraving